ICED: Resources for Immigrants

Inspiration

Our family backgrounds are home to many immigrant stories. Three out of four of our parents are immigrants of America and have shared their fair amount of struggle. Thus, with second hand experience, we decided to help those in a similar and/or worse situation.

What it does

Our project is designed with three main function in mind, the first being to educate new immigrants. This aspect of our program is designed to provide newly immigrated families , as well as families aspiring to immigrate, with helpful resources regarding topics such as social norms and Visa information. Second, the application is designed to provide immigrant the ability to communicate with people in similar situations via a forum. Through this forum, families can create closely knit communities with others and ensure a smooth transition into their new lives. Our project also allows resident aliens to report discrimination and exploitative behavior in the workplace.

How we built it

Our project is designed to be easy to use even by those who are not familiar with technology. Through the use of the React UI Framework and Google's Material Design, our project looks aesthetically pleasing on any device. Through the use of the new Progressive Web Application standards, our app is functional on any device, regardless of size. Furthermore, we utilized a .tech domain to provide a memorable name for those who wish to use our software. Our website is also hosted on Netlify.com, allowing us to easily make changes and ensure that the website is responsive from any location. Our forum system is also built on a mobile-friendly platform to facilitate communication between users.

Challenges we ran into

One of the biggest channels we ran into was the storage and page layout of the knowledge library. We initially struggled with creating anonymous forms for reporting exploitative behavior in the workplace. We persevered through these challenges to create a better user experience.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud of the modularity that we were able to create with the knowledge library, which allows us to add sections to library with ease. We are also proud of our ability to work together with source control to work together with source control to effectively distribute work.

What we learned

We learned that an important part of any app is an easy-to-use UI. Complicated functionality is useless when it cannot be used by the customer. We also learned that it is important to be part of our global community, not just our local or familial one.

What's next for ICED: Resources for Immigrants

We plan on creating multi-linugual versions of this is app to allow it to be used in many areas around the world. We will generalize the app and have many repositories of information to allow this app to be used not just for immigrating to the United States, but to other places around the world.